For Dream

Holy god, has it really been four months since I last updated?? My entire summer just... evaporated. Which is a funny way of looking at it, because it actually seemed to take forever to end.

Things are good with me right now! I started up school at university after getting an associate's degree at the end of last school year. I'm enjoying my classes and my instructors, though my schedule is a little whacky. I like going into downtown everyday, although today it was a little difficult to convince myself to make the trip. (I did, though, and it's all good.)

In other, more important news... Um. I'm going to see Arashi live for 5x15. I know I'd made comments to that effect months and months ago, but it wasn't official until yesterday. After balloting on 5 accounts, my friends and I hit for tickets on 1. We will be seeing Arashi in concert at Tokyo Dome on December 23rd.

I have never been to Japan before. I've wanted to go since I was about 10 (along with many other places on Earth, but Japan made its way toward the top of the to-do list around this age). When I was in high school nearly all of my friends got to travel abroad, most of them going to Japan specifically. I was glad for their experiences, but also rather jealous. There was no way I could conceive of being able to make the trip. I'd actually pretty much given up on that dream even in my late teens and early twenties when I was working a job that enabled me to save a considerable amount of money.

Sometime in the summer of 2012, however, I was doing some math and I realized that if I was incredibly careful... I could be in Japan for 5x15.

You have to understand that this was just a flight of fancy at first. I had just been playing around with numbers in my head, trying to make sure I'd have enough money for school and various living expenses. When I sat down and really thought about it however, I realized that I might actually be able to make it happen. I approached my mom one night and mentioned that there was a band that I really, really wanted to see, and a friend I really, really missed, and I could make this happen for myself... without any money from my parents. My mom being how she is of course encouraged the idea.

Even so, it was at that point that I started saving, calculating, recalculating, and saving some more. It's been a long two years, and I think that I was on some level nervous about it not working out. Either I wouldn't get the money, or I wouldn't have enough money for fun things other than the concert. There was a while when I thought I'd be SOL because I had forgotten that I needed a new passport, and I hadn't factored that cost into my travels. Earlier in the school year I got hit with fees I hadn't anticipated which gouged me for an extra $500, and I was looking down the barrel of spending an embarrassing amount of money on resale tickets if we did not hit.

Yesterday it all came together, though. I have my passport. I have my plane ticket. We hit for concert tickets on the date we desperately wanted. I have the money to eat, drink, and be merry. I will be staying with two of my best friends on Earth for Christmas and New Years.

I am 25 years old. I have been out of the country only once before, and this will be my second time. Even though I was bitterly jealous of my friends in high school for their opportunities, I feel like this is better.

ETA: Oh btw, you can check me out on twitter, @tangiblewhimsy. I'm... semi-active? More active there than I am here for the moment.